Flour glue

RainbowBrite

RainbowBrite

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I am seeing more and more people suggest giving hamsters flour and water glue without cooking it may be unsafe. I am not sure why this may be but just thought I would mention it here. We can make the same things but just pop them in the oven so the flour is not raw.
 
I’ve just used normal flour and water without baking. I can’t see it would be unsafe - it’s just wheat.
 
They say raw flour could potentially contain ecoli.
 
What was it that made you think it might not be safe Rainbow?
If it’s just plain wheat or buckwheat flour they can eat those raw so it would be fine.
 
Posted at the same time!

I haven’t come across that being an issue.
 
elusive said:
What was it that made you think it might not be safe Rainbow?
If it’s just plain wheat or buckwheat flour they can eat those raw so it would be fine.
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I have seen some people say that and somebody had to delete their video on youtube as they were showing boredom breakers using flour glue. Some people said it is not safe.

I think they only use the flour glue cooked in Germany.
 
I don’t have much idea of the current do’s & don’ts on Youtube to be honest as I tend not look at. that kind of thing but I know how this kind of idea can spread.

All raw food can potentially be contaminated, hamsters food is almost all raw, there’s just as much chance seed mix could be contaminate really and I don’t think it’s something you need to worry about.
 
elusive said:
I don’t have much idea of the current do’s & don’ts on Youtube to be honest as I tend not look at. that kind of thing but I know how this kind of idea can spread.

All raw food can potentially be contaminated, hamsters food is almost all raw, there’s just as much chance seed mix could be contaminate really and I don’t think it’s something you need to worry about.
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Thank you. Its hard to know what is okay sometimes.
 
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So it's ok to carry on using water and flour as normal?
 
I can’t see it’s any different to all the raw grains in hamster mixes really. I doubt the hamsters even eat the flour and water glue if it’s stuck on.

I do remember as children we were told not to eat raw pastry or it could give you stomach ache. But I think that was more to do with it being indigestible. And it contained fat as well as flour.

You could always freeze flour I guess - if concerned but I can’t see human grade flour being allowed to be sold if it contained harmful things.

Edit: freezing doesn’t kill ecoli apparently. It’s a fair point. Google says raw flour can contain such things. I don’t think anyone has ever had an issue with it though.
 
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It's the milling process that can theoretically introduce bacteria, since flour isn't pasteurized. Any time a food goes through machinery, there's a chance for bacteria to be introduced but flour from a reputable source (like a supermarket) should have gone through various checks to minimise the risk.

Freezing doesn't kill bacteria (it actually preserves bacteria) so it wouldn't help with e.coli but baking it (dry) would.
 
Daisy said:
I think flour can in theory contain e.coli but it's incredibly rare and likely not enough to cause illness in a healthy hamster.
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I was looking into this, too, as I saw some posts. I think it's one of those things where it is incredibly rare, but it could happen (raw flour having e.coli), so no government body (i.e. CDC in the US) is going to come out and say, "It's safe to eat raw flour," but at the same time it's so rare I suppose it's up to personal discretion- just no one (i.e bloggers or vloggers) wants to be responsible for saying it's okay and then having someone who listened to that being the victim of the rare circumstance of a contaminated batch. . . personally, it's too small a risk for me to worry about! I've sometimes tried a bit of raw flour when I suddenly worry that I didn't label a container of flour vs. some other grain and I want to make sure I'm using the right thing. I also still find it hard to not have any raw cookie dough while baking cookies... and I think it's the eggs there that are more risky for e.coli than the flour, but so far so good with my experience. So perhaps I'm not the best person to ask since I roll the dice a bit more even with my own health!
 
Frida said:
What temperature and for how long?
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I will use the lowest temperature and try 10 minutes. I think this is the time it took for me to make the seed sticks I made last year. :)

You could just take them out after a short time and see if the flour is cooked.
 
I've had a chat with my hubby and he doesn't want Albert to have anymore flour and water glue. He says it's not worth the risk.
I'll make Albert more puzzles instead.
 
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